Morning arrived clear and bright with plenty of moonlight but cooler too. Most of the cars had gone although a van and a pickup were near to the entrance of the Promontory. I slightly changed our normal route in and out to compensate for this. Only Fido, Isabella and Skinny made it to the end of the Promontory so we quickly crossed the rocks to try to chase up the rest. Sasha appeared before the next biscuit distribution however we were still short of Luis, Obi and Oskar who joined us soon after. I discovered that Obi had found a goat head which Isabella immediately snatched from him despite Obi’s protestations. I took it from Isabella and put it in the trash.
Luis was about but didn’t make it to Plakaki where I could see a light moving about. I think it was somewhere on the rocks as there was no one by the chairs. We had biscuits and returned to The Promontory via the road. There were no tents on The Big Beach and in fact none that we could see during our walk around. The only people were in the pickup and the van in the car park. We went back and then I took Isabella and Sasha around once more. I exercised my brain before taking my bike to the top of the mountain with no stops during the rest of the trip other than the periptero to buy fags for Bona. Rather than buy penny-numbers, I picked up ten packets which should keep her going for a little while. She has little time for much other than work, look after her boys and sleep.
Having fed the dogs, I spent much of the morning doing little other than sorting out the supplier invoices in a very leisurely way. I went up to the office to search for some more and some missing ones to find Maria hard at work. As usual, she was trying to keep all of the balls in the air. Two phones ringing constantly as well as customers at the window coming to pay. The customers wait patiently whilst Maria answers the phones. She spends her time going over the same information about the camping. I’m sure many would be happy to read it all online and make a reservation from the information and some decent photos. I sat for a while and entered some more data on my phone then, having discovered an unopened phone bill in one of the piles, I opened it for Maria’s attention. Hopefully, it will get paid before it finds its way back to the bottom of the pile. I think each bill is paid manually via inter-bank transfer so it’s been known for the phone to be cut off during the winter. I remember Georgia being very indignant when I suggested the bill had not been paid once so it’s likely she was unaware of the times it was cut off.
I went back to the dogs, finished processing and tidying up the invoices and moved on to more interesting activities including a shower.
Later, I received a call from Francesco telling me about being rescued whilst out at sea. Apparently, he was with his family in their boat when the motor stopped working. He could see the battery was flat even though the meter was saying the battery was good just before the motor stopped. Using the canvas shade as a sail, they were doing quite well at getting back from Krios until they started to drift. Francesco was extremely well equipped with buoyancy vests, lights and even flares. He let off one of the flares and someone in a larger boat with twin outboards came to tow him into Krios where he left the boat. The police had been notified and Francesco, being super-prepared was able to present them with the full set of documents for the boat including insurance and various certificates. The policewoman apparently commented on his safety precautions but suggested he might look at some of the technical matters. When we went on the maiden voyage, we took both batteries however swapping them over would have been a daunting prospect considering the state of the sea. In any event, they all got back to the camping safe and sound however the boat needed recovering from Krios. I waylaid Michaelis who suggested I ask Manolis, as he was working until late. Manolis took us to Krios and between us we lugged the boat and its accessories to the pickup from its resting place on the beach. With four, the boat is easy to move but not so easy with three. I changed sides frequently but it was hard-going for the person on their own. Fortunately, the motor and battery were brought back with them but the anchor and chain were heavy enough as we carried the other items between us. We got the boat and all the accessories into the back of Manolis’ pickup and went back to the camping to unload it all at Francesco’s pitch. I then disappeared as it was coming up to dog-feeding time and I had yet to eat. Fakes this evening!
The excitements continued when Bona called to say that the amber light was flashing on the boiler which heats the water for the main bathroom and customer kitchen. I did all of the usual things to get it going and went back to finish my blog to discover there was no Internet. The office was closed and Maria has my key so I needed to find her to get in. Georgia took Maria’s key from me ages ago when she was here before the season began. She didn’t give it to Maria so I gave Maria my own key which I had cut for myself. It transpired the power periodically cuts off in the office and there was a brief power dip earlier on. It probably explains what happened the other evening too. The Internet is working again and so is the boiler but I checked it on my way back from the office to discover it was off. I restarted it and it went all faulty so I restarted it again. As it’s the busiest time of the day in the kitchen and the shower it’s not so good when the water temperature is around 30ºC!
I’m going to have the rest of the day off!
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